7 Mar 2015

Last November I was lucky to be chosen, along a group of other enthusiastic and amateur photographers, to attend one of the workshops that Lumix was going to offer in Bangkok. It would be an intensive one day workshop, morning to evening, held at a hotel that I already knew from my previous workshop with APF and, not surprisingly, it was going to be conducted completely in Thai, a language that I'm far from understanding. However, thanks to the consideration of the coaches, plus the support of the fellow photographers, I was able to follow without much trouble, which speaks volumes, not of my language skills, but of the power of photography as a universal language. After a morning more geared towards theoretical explanations on the fundamentals of photography, afternoon came, and with it the time to practice, which was the main point of the whole agenda. First exercise: indoor, studio lightning photography with models, an absolute first for me.

By the window I, GH3 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

By the window II, GH3 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Book and sofa, GH3 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

It was really an eye opener, working with professional models and with lightning equipment for the first time taught me many things about the importance of placement, location, and perspective. After we were done with this first module, it was time to change and go outdoors to practice under natural light conditions, again accompanied by external lights, which, again, proved a very interesting exercise, since artificial lighting is the area of photography I had never touched before, prior to that day.

Nerve, GH3 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

Self-confidence, GH3 + Panasonic Leica 42.5mm

All in all, it was a great experience, and I wanna take this opportunity to thank once more all the organizers and colleagues from the workshop for being so understanding and collaborative with me, despite the language barrier. I really learned a lot and, more specially, enjoyed spending the day with all of them sharing our common passion: photography. A couple of last frames from the day: one that I grabbed in the hotel, unrelated but next room to our workshop and that caught my attention, and another one of the passionate group of people who made the day so enjoyable. Thanks, Lumix! Thanks, everybody!